Dear Editor,
Can the police public relations department say whether coroner’s inquests have been or will be held into the extra-judicial killings of 203 males by the police over the last 11 years? Below are the years and the corresponding number of persons killed. The data were obtained from US State Department Country Reports on Guyana and from the local print media. In the words of the Country Reports, “In most cases, the police shot the victims while attempting to arrest them or while a crime was being committed.”
1997 – 27, 1998 – 11, 1999 – 9, 2000 – 13, 2001 – 16, 2002 – 28, 2003 – 39 , 2004 – 13, 2005 – 12 , 2006 – 19 , 2007 – 16.
Like dogs they might have been shot, but even dogs can eat the crumbs that fall off the table and get an official and truthful closure to their strayed humanity. One mark of a civilized country is that it treats its worst citizens in a civilized manner. Then there is hope for the rest of us.
Yours faithfully,
M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hackett
